Scientists re -created the first molecule of the universe

After seconds of the big explosion, the new universe led to the first elements – painful forms of hydrogen and helium. These particles combined, forgery of helium hydride –The first molecule ever. It will take the birth of the first hundred million years to generate the first stars, and scientists have long puzzled the exact nature of the chemical processes that led to its formation.

To try to activate the story of the star origin, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg created a helium hydraide in Germany in the laboratory. They found that it is possible that it would play a greater role in the birth of the stars than they previously believed, which helped primitive gas clouds to get rid of the heat sufficient to collapse in the stars.

In the study, the researchers collided with a collision between helium hydride and duteium in what they believe is a unique experience, according to the press. Release. Their results, published in the magazine Astronomy and astronomical physics On July 24, it was indicated that the reaction rate is still fixed with a decrease in temperature, which contradicts the previous work.

“Previous theories predicted a significant decrease in the possibility of interaction at low temperatures, but we were unable to verify this either in the new experience or theoretical calculations by our colleagues,” Holger Crickl, a researcher at Max Planck and the lead author in the study in a statement.

He added: “It seems that the hydroide helium reactions with neutral hydrogen and dutereem were more important to chemistry in the early universe than previously assumed.”

The hydroium hydrogen hydrogen interacts produce molecular hydrogen, and the composition of stars is likely to be with the help of the early universe. Initially – which was formed in the study – the hydrogen counterpart that contains neutron in addition to a proton, with a helium hydride to produce hydrogen dotiride, is a form of molecular hydrogen forms of hydrogen atom and dotirium atom. Another reaction occurs when helium hydroide collides with a neutral hydrogen seed, which produces neutral molecular hydrogen. Both molecular hydrogen forms act as resources, which helps the damage to heat loss, condensation, and eventually collapses to the stars.

The researchers used the MAX Planck’s refrigerated storage ring to carry out their experience. This low -temperature reaction room allows scientists to study molecular and atomic reactions in space -like conditions. The team stored helium hydride ions inside the room for up to a minute in about -450 degrees Fahrenheit (-267 ° C), then imposed with a beam of neutral dioterium atoms. To monitor how the collision rate is different with collision energy – directly associated with the temperature – they adjusted the relative speeds of particle symptoms.

Scientists had previously believed that the rate of reactions would slow down with a decrease in temperature, but the results of this experiment indicate otherwise. The researchers found that the rate was almost fixed despite the low temperatures. This amazing result indicates that helium hydride is still chemical active even in cold conditions, which is the discovery that scientists argue in their paper should pay the reassessment of helium chemistry in the early universe.